William Howard Taft Dbq

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William Howard Taft served his term as the twenty-seventh President of the United States from March 4, 1909 to March 3, 1913. He became president after the well-known Theodore Roosevelt, so he had some big feet to fill. Roosevelt supported and helped him become president and thought of him to be “progressive”. For the campaign, Taft wanted to lose about thirty pounds from the 300 he had to get ready for his campaign. His campaign in 1908 depended mostly on Roosevelt for he would help him with his speeches, give him advice and energy he needed. Taft didn’t like campaigns or politics, which his handlers had to cover up by telling everyone that he was a different kind of politician that didn’t want to fight or say negative things about his opponent.…show more content…
Taft’s second mistake was when he fired Gifford Pinchot, a friend of Theodore Roosevelt. It started when Richard Ballinger was appointed by President Taft as head of the Department of the Interior. Ballinger claimed that Roosevelt closed large pieces of public-domain land improperly and re-opened some of them for sale. Some of this land included land from Alaska that contained coal. Due to this, Pinchot publicly attacked Ballinger and Taft, caused Taft to fire him. This action caused tensions within the Republican Party and withered Taft’s and Roosevelt’s friendship. Overall, I believe that William Howard Taft’s presidency was a failure. First of all, he hated politics and campaigning. Being involved in your own campaign and politics is a very important part of being president. If you don’t like politics, you shouldn’t be president. He didn’t really do the job as a president, but as a judge that saw every side to an issue. He was appointed as chief justice later on in the 1920’s. He was greatly influenced by his business friends and switched his opinion of getting rid of trusts to becoming conservative. He was a president that was indecisive, crossed over Roosevelt (which basically caused him to lose the 1913 election), and didn’t stick to his views and promises that he had in the beginning. However, his qualities served well in his future in the judicial
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